Cisco Catalyst 4500 Switch Buying Guide: 4500E Chassis, Supervisors, Line Cards, Licensing and 4500-X

By M&F Collaboration · Published October 20, 2026 · Last updated October 20, 2026

The Catalyst 4500 family still anchors plenty of campus closets and distribution layers: modular 4500E chassis with field-replaceable supervisors and line cards, and the fixed 10G Catalyst 4500-X. Our Cisco Catalyst 4500 Switches category lists the WS-C4503-E, WS-C4506-E, WS-C4507R+E and WS-C4510R+E chassis and seven 4500-X listings. This guide matches each chassis to the right supervisor, line cards and license, using Cisco's own documents.

Which Catalyst 4500E chassis fits your closet?

Choose the chassis by slot count and redundancy. The 3-slot WS-C4503-E and 6-slot WS-C4506-E hold one supervisor in slot 1. The 7-slot WS-C4507R+E and 10-slot WS-C4510R+E hold two supervisors for 1+1 redundancy, and with a Supervisor Engine 8-E all four chassis deliver 48 Gbps per line card slot.

Cisco ships each chassis with a fan tray and no power supply, so budget for supplies separately. Cisco describes the R+E chassis as the 48 Gbps-ready versions of the older R-E chassis. If you are extending an existing 7-slot R-E chassis, note that it needs hardware revision 2.0 or higher to run a Supervisor Engine 8-E or 8L-E.

Which supervisor engine should you choose?

For most buyers the answer is the WS-X45-SUP8-E. Cisco rates it at 928 Gbps of switching capacity, 250 Mpps of IPv4 throughput and 48 Gbps per slot, with eight 10G SFP+ uplinks that also accept 1G SFP optics. It has 4 GB of SDRAM, 256,000 IPv4 routes, 128,000 IPv6 routes and 55,000 MAC addresses.

The supervisor family on our site breaks down like this:

• Supervisor Engine 8-E: works in the 4503-E, 4506-E, 4507R+E and 4510R+E. With one supervisor it can run up to eight 10G uplinks; with two supervisors, each runs up to four.
• Supervisor Engine 8L-E: the other 8-series supervisor, mapped by Cisco to the Catalyst 9400 Supervisor-1 rather than the Supervisor-1XL.
• Supervisor Engine 7-E and 7L-E: the earlier generation, supported on E-Series, R-E and R+E chassis. Cisco has announced end of life for both.

One rule catches buyers out: Cisco's release notes state that the WS-C4510R+E does not support the Supervisor Engine 7L-E or 8L-E. In a 10-slot chassis, use the 7-E or 8-E. Cisco also notes that the Supervisor Engine 8-E fits Catalyst 4500 E-Series chassis only, not the classic 4500 chassis.

Which line cards match your ports and PoE needs?

Line cards set the port type, PoE class and oversubscription. Cisco's WS-X47xx cards are nonblocking, while the WS-X4648 cards run 2:1 oversubscription. For 60W endpoints, the WS-X4748-UPOE+E gives 48 nonblocking 10/100/1000 ports with 802.3at PoE+ and 60W UPOE.

• WS-X4748-RJ45V+E: 48 nonblocking ports with 802.3at PoE+ at up to 30W per port.
• WS-X4748-RJ45-E: 48 nonblocking 10/100/1000 data ports with Energy Efficient Ethernet.
• WS-X4648-RJ45V+E: 48 ports with 802.3at PoE+ at up to 30W per port and 2:1 oversubscription.
• WS-X4748-SFP-E: 48 Gigabit Ethernet SFP ports for fiber aggregation.
• WS-X4640-CSFP-E: 40 SFP ports at 2:1 oversubscription, or 80 compact SFP ports at 4:1.

For 10G downlinks, the WS-X4712-SFP+E adds 12 SFP+ ports. Cisco supports it in the 4503-E, 4506-E, 4507R+E and 4510R+E, but not in the older 7- and 10-slot R-E chassis. In a 10-slot chassis, some Supervisor Engine 8-E uplink modes, such as one supervisor running eight 10G uplinks, restrict the last slot to WS-X47xx line cards.

How do you power a Catalyst 4500E for PoE?

Pick supplies that cover both data and PoE. Cisco's bulletin separates data-only supplies, such as the PWR-C45-1000AC and PWR-C45-1400AC, from data-and-PoE supplies, such as the PWR-C45-1300ACV and the PWR-C45-2800ACV. Every supply the bulletin describes as data and PoE carries a V in its part number.

Size the supplies from the total PoE load plus the power the supervisors and line cards draw, and leave headroom if you want power redundancy.

Which license do you need: LAN Base, IP Base or Enterprise Services?

The license sets the feature set on a 4500E supervisor. LAN Base covers access-layer Layer 2 features with up to 2,048 VLANs. IP Base raises that to 4,096 VLANs and adds HSRP, EIGRP stub, PIM multicast routing, NSF/SSO and ISSU. Enterprise Services adds BGP, full EIGRP, IS-IS, VRF-Lite and Easy Virtual Network.

Cisco ships each Supervisor Engine 8-E with a universal image containing all three feature sets, and the license applied decides which one runs. Upgrades such as LAN Base to IP Base or IP Base to Enterprise Services are software activation licenses, so no hardware swap is needed. Keep these points in mind:

• IP Base limits OSPF to one OSPFv2 and one OSPFv3 instance with up to 200 dynamically learned routes. Use Enterprise Services for larger routed designs.
• Virtual Switching System needs IP Base on the 7-E or 8-E, or Enterprise Services on any 7- or 8-series supervisor. LAN Base doesn't support it.
• From IOS XE 3.10.0E, Cisco also offered DNA Essentials and DNA Advantage as add-on licenses.

The 4500-X uses only IP Base and Enterprise Services, and the part number shows which one ships: -IPB means IP Base and -ES means Enterprise Services. The WS-C4500X-40X-ES ships with Enterprise Services.

When should you choose a Catalyst 4500-X instead?

Choose the 4500-X when you need dense 10G aggregation in a fixed switch rather than a modular chassis. Cisco rates it at 800 Gbps of switching capacity, and two switches of the same model run as one Virtual Switching System at up to 1.6 Tbps. Every front port takes 10G SFP+ or 1G SFP optics.

Cisco lists 16- and 32-port base switches alongside 24- and 40-port models such as the WS-C4500X-24X-IPB and WS-C4500X-40X-ES. The 16- and 32-port bases take the optional, hot-swappable C4KX-NM-8SFP+ eight-port 10G module. Check these points before you buy:

• Airflow: WS-C4500X-F models cool back to front, and the others cool front to back. Cisco sells front-to-back and back-to-front versions of the fans and power supplies, so order the version that matches.
• Route scale: Cisco lists 256,000 IPv4 routes on the 32-port base and 64,000 on the 16-port base.
• Power: each switch takes up to two 750W AC or DC supplies and has five field-replaceable fans.

When did Cisco support for the Catalyst 4500 end?

Cisco's two bulletins, one for the 4500E chassis, supervisors and line cards and one for the 4500-X, share the same dates. End of sale was October 30, 2020, and the Last Date of Support, which was also the end of security fixes, was October 31, 2025. The Supervisor Engine 7-E and 7L-E aren't in these bulletins, because Cisco announced their end of life separately.

• End of sale: October 30, 2020.
• Last ship date: January 29, 2021.
• End of software maintenance releases: October 30, 2021.
• Last service contract renewal: January 28, 2025.
• End of vulnerability and security support and Last Date of Support: October 31, 2025.

The hardware keeps forwarding traffic after these dates. Refurbished supervisors, line cards and supplies are a sensible way to keep a working chassis running while you plan its replacement.

What does Cisco recommend instead of the Catalyst 4500?

Cisco points 4500E buyers to the Catalyst 9400. Its bulletin maps the 4503-E to the C9404R, the 4506-E and 4507R+E to the C9407R and the 4510R+E to the C9410R. The Supervisor Engine 8-E maps to the Supervisor-1XL, and the 8L-E maps to the Supervisor-1. Browse our Cisco Catalyst 9400 Switches or read our Cisco Catalyst 9400 Switch Buying Guide.

For the 4500-X, Cisco maps the WS-C4500X-16SFP+ to the C9500-16X, the 24-port models to the C9500-24X, and the 32-port front-to-back model and the WS-C4500X-40X-ES to the C9500-48Y4C. The back-to-front WS-C4500X-F-16SFP+ and WS-C4500X-F-32SFP+ have no listed replacement. Browse our Cisco Catalyst 9500 Switches for those models.

What should you check before you request a quote?

• The chassis model, and for an R-E chassis its hardware revision.
• Each supervisor's model and license level.
• The line cards you need, with port type, PoE class and slot positions.
• Power supply models and the total PoE load.
• For a 4500-X, the port count, airflow direction and whether you need the eight-port module.
• The optics for supervisor uplinks and fiber line cards.
• Whether you want new or refurbished units, as condition varies by listing.

Catalyst 4500 FAQ